'It's Not Bahia Drive'

From a waterfront mansion to a bunk in a two-man cell. From tailored suits to U.S. government-issued khakis. From expensive cigars to a strict no-smoking environment.

Disgraced attorney Scott Rothstein now spends his days and nights awaiting trial at the Federal Detention Center in Miami, where inmates rise at 6 a.m., shower in a common area and are paid from 12 to 40 cents an hour to mop floors, clean toilets or prep for meals.

"It's not Bahia Drive," Rothstein's attorney, Marc Nurik, said referring to his client's former multimillion-dollar residence in one of Fort Lauderdale's choicest neighborhoods, one of many properties Rothstein has now ceded to the feds. "It's difficult for anyone to be in this situation. He's trying to cope. He's trying to adjust like all people would."

Prison officials would not divulge details of Rothstein's confinement, but shared a picture of the typical existence for a federal inmate whose meals arrive like clockwork, free time is limited to four hours daily and family visits are restricted to four hours per month.

Nurik said Rothstein is being kept with the general population at the facility in downtown Miami, has a cellmate and now wears the "tacky tan" scrubs issued to all inmates.

The once flamboyant Las Olas Boulevard attorney, political high roller and open-handed philanthropist is charged with five federal crimes: racketeering, conspiracy to commit money laundering, conspiracy to commit fraud and two counts of wire fraud.

Accused of swindling investors in a $1.2 billion Ponzi scheme by selling stakes in nonexistent legal settlements, Rothstein, 47, has pleaded not guilty to all charges. His trial is tentatively set for Jan. 11.

Others who have bunked at the same detention center - where those incarcerated await trial or permanent prison assignment after sentencing - include former Panamanian dictator Manuel Noriega, convicted terrorist Jose Padilla, and Broward's own disgraced former Sheriff Ken Jenne, who spent weeks there after pleading guilty in a public corruption case. Rothstein hired Jenne after he was released from prison.

Bill Matthewman, a South Florida attorney who represents many federal defendants and frequently visits them at the detention center, said Rothstein must be experiencing a "180-degree turnaround" from the affluent, swinging lifestyle he enjoyed before his arrest on Tuesday.

"It's a very regimented, austere style of life," Matthewman said. "It's just a very Spartan experience."

Detainees at the center are told when to get up, when to eat and when to go to bed, he said. They are subjected to head counts at least once a day, when they must stand against the wall as guards make sure everyone is accounted for.

They are subject to searches, including body-cavity searches, every time they go back and forth from court, he said.

Like clockwork, Rothstein will eat breakfast at 6:30 a.m., lunch at 11 a.m. and dinner at 5 p.m. The fare will be far different from the fine meals served at Bova Prime, the Las Olas Boulevard restaurant Rothstein co-owned and frequented.

Rothstein will answer to a work call at 7:30 a.m. where his job assignment could be housing-unit orderly, groundskeeper, painter or food-service worker, said Felicia Ponce, a spokeswoman for the federal Bureau of Prisons.

Four hours of daily free time are progammed from 5 to 9 p.m. when inmates can play basketball, ride stationary bikes, research their defense in the law library, attend chapel or watch TV.

At 11 p.m., it's lights out.

Phone calls are recorded, incoming and outgoing mail is read, and visits are supervised.

Like all pre-trial inmates, Rothstein will be allowed only four hours of social visits a month and only with immediate family members. Physical contact is limited to one hug at the beginning of the visit and another at the end.

As for conjugal visits, there will be none.

"None, ever," Ponce said. "It's not gonna happen."

Phone and visitation privileges can be withheld as punishment. Visitors have to be pre-approved and undergo background checks by the Bureau of Prisons.

Rothstein's attorney, Nurik, said he deposited $500 in his client's commissary account, but like all other inmates he'll be limited to only $290 a month in purchases of snacks, toiletries and other personal items.

He'll have to give up the expensive cigars cold turkey. Federal prisons are no-smoking zones.

"A lot of people think it's dangerous, physically, but I don't think that's necessarily the case in the Federal Detention Center," Matthewman said.

But there are other risks, he said.

Matthewman said he warns all of his clients not to talk about their case with anyone out of concern that their peers will testify against them.

"Inmates have to be very careful who they speak to because there are always other inmates looking to do what is called 'jumping on the case' of another inmate, particularly a 'star-type' defendant who is getting a lot of media coverage, in the hope of getting their own sentence reduced," he said.

Tonya Alanez can be reached at tealanez@sunsentinel.com or 954-356-4542.